May 2013 - Page 3 of 6 - Migrant tales

Dear Migrant Tales…when the workplace becomes a hostile place

Posted on May 19, 2013 by Migrant Tales

Dear Migrant Tales,

Being the only black person at work can be challenging but what about if the workplace becomes openly hostile to you? By hostile I mean being constantly watched by your coworkers, if you make a mistake it’s always a bigger deal than if a white coworker did it, if you’re speaking on the phone, your work mates are the first ones to tell you that you’re not on a break.

I got fired from my last job after working there for about four months. I’ve had many jobs but the last one was the worst. The work atmosphere there was terrible.

I confided in a worker, an older man, at my former job. I spoke openly to him about myself and some of my problems. I found out from another coworker that he was talking behind my back and exaggerating what I had told him.

One day while I was on a break, the person I confided in started to raise his voice at me. He told me that Somalis shouldn’t live in Finland and why don’t I return back to where I came from. I couldn’t take it anymore and raised my voice back at him.

The older man went immediately to our boss and told him that I had raised my voice at him. The boss spoke to us and then told me that he didn’t believe anything I said. He said he believed the white worker because he had worked at the company much longer than I.

I ended up getting fired.

White Finns have effective ways of excluding you at work. At the job I got fired, your opinion didn’t matter because nobody cared what you thought. It’s such a stressful situation! Some of my coworkers even asked me to do their job because they thought I was dumb. I’m not dumb.

I’m extra careful at my new job. I don’t want to get fired again and I’ve learned an important lesson: Not to mix with my coworkers and just mind my own business.

I’d appreciate any good advice on how a black person can survive at a Finnish company.

Abdulah

Abdulah, who speaks to us under condition of anonymity, has appeared on Migrant Tales a number of times.

Otavan Sanomat: Opiskeleminen Suomessa

Posted on May 18, 2013 by Migrant Tales

Iise Ali Hassan

Suomessa on paljon mahdollisuuksia opiskella mitä sinä haluat. Kaikki opiskelu on lähes ilmaista ja tämä kannustaa ihmisiä jatkamaan opiskelua. Ilman opiskelua on vaikea päästää eteenpäin elämässä Suomessa.

Opiskelen Otavan Opiston monikulttuurisella peruskoulunlinjalla. Vaikein asiaa minulle on Suomen kieli. Silti olen oppinut paljon tänä vuonna.

Ensimmäinen asiaa johon ulkomaalainen opiskelija törmää koulussa on suomen tai ruotsin kieli. On erittäin tärkeä, että opiskelija oppi puhumaan Suomea. Ilman Suomea on vaikea tutustua ja kotoutua Suomeen yhteiskuntaan ja työelämään.

Yksi hyvä tapa harjoitella suomen kieltä on tutustua suomalaisiin. Tämä joskus on vaikea muttei mahdotonta.

On selvää että Suomessa kannatta opiskella kovasti ja yrittää kannustaa itseä eteenpäin elämässä. Tämä mahdollisuus on annettu meille ja olisi huono juttu olla käyttämättä tämä lahjaa.

Minulla on ollut helppoa opiskella Suomessa, koska olin opiskellut ala- sekä ylläasteella Somaliassa. Opiskelen paljon samoja asioita mutta eri kielillä!

Paitsi suomen kieltä ja tämä maan kulttuuria, opiskelu Suomessa on antanut minulle uusia mahdollisuuksia päästä eteenpäin elämässä.

Tämä kirjoitus julkaistiin Otavan Sanomissa (toukokuu 2013). Iise Ali Hassan on Otavan Opiston monikulttuurisella peruskoululinjalla.

Muhamed Abdimajed Murshid: Osaatko suomea? Can you speak Finnish?

Posted on May 18, 2013 by Migrant Tales

This cartoon by Muhamed Abdimajed Murshid was published in Otavan Sanomat in May 2013. It was a magazine project by the students of Otava Folk High School. The cartoon shows what a lot of immigrants face when studying Finnish.

Picture one: Studying Finnish in the beginning.

Picture two: Two years later… Do any of you know basic Finnish grammar?

Picture three: At a job interview…You have learned Finnish but your accent doesn’t sound Finnish.

Assaulted Helsinki, Finland, black bus driver: Immigrants are treated unfairly by the police and law

Posted on May 17, 2013 by Migrant Tales

Ali Dahir, the black bus driver who was assaulted Tuesday in Helsinki by a white Finn, claims that the police and the law treat foreigners differently from Finns. The bus driver, who is a Finnish citizen and a native of Somalia, was attacked while at work and suffered concussions.

While the police and government officials may disagree with Dahir, his statement by him reveals a wider known problem: There is little credibility of the police and our laws by some immigrants. It is a serious problem that should be addressed.

“The police and the law treat foreigners [or people who aren’t white Finns] unfairly,” he told Migrant Tales. “If I would have attacked a white bus driver, you can be certain I’d be arrested and jailed.”

Dahir asked the policemen why they didn’t arrest and lock up the attacker after he was apprehended.

“All they said was that they understood why I was angry [by what happened],” he said.

Dahir, who has lived 17 years in Finland, believes that the police and law continue to treat people who aren’t white Finns unfairly.

“I am certain that if this would have happened in the UK or Sweden, they’d have locked up the attacker,” he said.

UPDATE: Black bus driver assaulted in Helsinki

Posted on May 16, 2013 by Migrant Tales

A black bus driver from Somalia was assaulted Tuesday in Helsinki by a white Finn, who apparently didn’t like a black man honking the horn at him. Ali Dahir, the victim who has been given sick leave from work, was hit by the attacker and suffered concussions.

“I had to stop at an intersection and almost crashed into a car that came from the wrong direction,” he said. “I honked my horn at him. He followed me [to the bus stop], walked inside and attacked me.”

The bus driver said that the man was clearly upset. “I was born in Finland,” he said, “and nobody honks the horn [in this country except for foreigners].”

The Somali bus driver, who is a Finnish citizen, got away from the assailant and locked himself in the attacker’s car until the police arrived.

According to Dahir, none of the passengers in the bus came to his rescue. Only two immigrant passengers inside the bus called the police.

“I was surprised that they didn’t arrest the man and lock him up,” he said. “If a Somali would have attacked a [white] Finnish bus driver, I’d be in jail. I’ve seen this happen before.”

The news was first published on Abdirahim Husu Hussein‘s Facebook page.

Go GO PS MP Hirvisaari! Let all of your intolerance and racism hang out!

Posted on May 15, 2013 by Migrant Tales

We have written so much about the outbursts of far right Perussuomalaiset (PS) MP James Hirvisaari that it isn’t funny. One of his latest statements on Facebook, where he considers using the Swedish language in parliament as “ridiculous,” is not an attack on this language minority but serves to expose the intolerance and loathing that the PS has for minorities in Finland.

Every time a PS MP like Hirvisaari opens his mouth, he actually helps the PS lose its appeal among voters and what’s most important its chances of being a partner in a future government.

We hope that Hirvisaari, who was sentenced for ethnic agitation in 2011, continuous to stoop to ever-lower levels so that voters in his home municipality of Asikkala will give him the thumbs down in 2015.

A party that accepts politicians like Hirvisaari and a too long list of others like him doesn’t belong in parliament unless our aim is to send Finland back to the political dark ages when scapegoats and political witch hunts were the rule.

PS MP James Hirvisaari claims that speaking Swedish, Finland’s second official language, in parliament is “arrogant snobbery” and a waste of time. Thank you @DrMKuismaa.

Councilman Mika Hiltunen gets sentenced for ethnic agitation but gets pat on the back by the PS

Posted on May 15, 2013 by Migrant Tales

After Perussuomalaiset (PS) party Kontiolahti town councilman Mika Hiltunen was sentenced Tuesday by a court for ethnic agitation, we saw once again a familiar balancing by the PS: stating to moderates it doesn’t accept racism but at the same time assuring the extreme right that the party accepts racist outbursts by its members.

We have seen this time and again. The PS and Timo Soini, who said in 2009 that any party member who got sentenced for ethnic agitation would be sacked from the party, are political Houdinis. How can you be against racism and support it at the same time? That takes special politcial skills and a public that is by and large pretty ignorant of what racism is.

It’s too early still for the PS to count it’s promising political chicks. Soini and the party leaders know that its double talk and political chicanery on intolerance could backfire badly.

Let’s see how the latest balancing act by the PS works. In order to stand out and award the extremist and racist voters of the party, councilman Hiltunen claims on his Facebook page that asylum seekers and refugees are “social-welfare bums and rapists.”

Ethnic agitation charges are then brought against Hiltrunen and gets sentenced by a court in May He is forced to pay a 2,000-euro fine.

Now here’s how the balancing act happens: Eero Bogdanoff, PS North-Karelian region chairman, publicly defends what Hiltunen said by asking him to not resign as member of the PS’ regional board and continue as if nothing happened. Well, as almost as if nothing happened…

“Hiltunen has mend his ways pretty well,” Bogadanoff is quoted as saying on YLE. “The publicity he got is punishment in itself.”

What would have happen to Hiltunen if he made such racist public comments and lived in a country like Sweden or Britain? There are two options: He’d be either sacked from the party or forced to give an apology for what he said.

He or the PS did neither.

Migrant Tales Literary: Boycott ?????

Posted on May 15, 2013 by Dana

By Dana

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Land of walls: Finland Finland or prejudice

Prejudice, maybe banter Banter, wow, a hunter

A hunter of humanity Humanity screams out in this land

Land of doubts, a sick land of doubts Thoughts that doubt, a land of colossal hurt

Land of hurt or Finland Finland, yes, a land of sin

Land of sin or ding dong land Ding dong land or land of hate

Land of hate or land of fakes Land of fakes and land that shakes

Scam scam scammers I give you fair waning: scam is a shark

Walls oh walls look at those walls Here, there and everywhere

They play games behind the walls Behind the walls that are inhabited by the darkness.

Record number of immigrants become Finnish citizens in 2012

Posted on May 15, 2013 by Migrant Tales

A record number of immigrants got Finnish citizen in 2012, rising by 4,530 to 9,090 persons, according to Statistics Finland. The lion’s share of these naturalized Finns were Russians (2,480) followed by Somalis (610), Estonians (520) and Afghanis. While citizenship grants many rights to an immigrant, it does not mean that the person will be accepted and treated as an equal member of Finnish society.

Source: Statistics Finland

Citizenship granted to foreign nationals 2011-06. Source: Statistics Finland

Statistics Finland reported that 7,990 (+4,160 versus 2011) of the persons granted citizenship were from outside the EU versus 1,100 (+370) who were from EU countries.

While Finnish women were the first in Europe to get the right to vote in 1906, they had to wait till 1984 to have the same rights as men to grant automatic citizenship to their children.

Finnish citizenship is not determined by place of birth (jus solis) but by the citizenship of their parents (jus sanguinis).

A citizenship test in the late-1980s included an interview with the Finnish Security Intelligence Service (Supo).

Even if my mother is a Finnish citizen, the first question the Supo agent asked me was why I seek Finnish citizenship.

“It’s my right,” I answered.

Otavan Sanomat: Oikea tie Suomessa

Posted on May 14, 2013 by Migrant Tales

Hser Hser ja Mustafa Isman

Monet turvapakanhakijat jotka tulevat Suomeen etsivät ja saavat uuden mahdollisuuden elämässä. Ihmisillä, jotka elävät maassa, jossa on sotaa ei ole paljon tulevaisuutta, vain pelkoa ja epätoivoa.

Pakolaisten tiet Suomeen ovat monenlaisia. Jotkut saattavat tulla suoraan turvapaikkahakijana, kun taas toiset tulevat kiintiöpakolaisina tai pääsevät Suomeen perheenyhdistämisen perusteella.

Viime vuonna Suomeen tuli 3 129 turvapaikanhakijaa. Tässä on pieni nousu edelliseen vuoteen verrattuna, jolloin määrä oli 3 026, Maahanmuuttoviraston tietojen mukaan. Suomi ottaa joka vuosi 750 kiintiöpakolaista.

Kotoutuminen ja sopeutuminen uuteen kotimaahan saattaa olla vaikeaa jollekin ja helpompaa toisille. Vaikein haaste monelle maahanmuuttajalle on uuden kielen oppiminen, maan tavat ja kulttuuri. Hyvä suomen tai ruotsin kielen taito on tärkeä, jos uusi asukas haluaa menestyä Suomessa.

On myös muita tärkeitä seikkoja jotka edistävät kotoutumista. Tärkeää on myös koulutus ja ammatti, työllistyminen, verkostoituminen sekä yhteiskunnan hyväksyntä.

Monen pakolaisen elämä on ollut vaikeaa ennen Suomeen muuttamisesta. Esimerkiksi kiintiöpakolaiset, jotka tulevat Thaimaasta ja ovat alun perin Myanmarista, ovat eläneet monta vuotta pakolaisleireissä ennen tuloaan maahamme. Eräät heistä ovat eläneet niin kauan pakolaisleirissä etteivät tunne vanhempiensa kotimaasta.

Jotkut kiintiöpakolaiset saattavat odottaa 12 vuotta pakolaisleirissä ennen kuin pääsevät uuteen kotimaahan.

Kun astu pakolaisleirissä, asut ei-kenenkään maassa. Pakolaisleirillä ei ole tulevaisuutta. Siellä ei saa liikkua vapaasti leirin ulkopuolella.

Maailmankatsomus on hyvin suppea, koska elämän kuuluu vain pakolaisleiri ja lähimmät asukkaat, jotka odottavat kärsivällisesti muuttoa toiseen maahan.

Molemmat olemme kiitollisia siitä, että olemme päässeet Suomen ja pystymme opiskelemaan ja liikkumaan vapasti. Piikkilangat tai aseet eivät pidättele meitä enää vangittuna.

Kiitoksia Suomi.

Tämä kirjoitus julkaistiin Otavan Sanomissa (toukokuu 2013). Hser Hser ja Mustafa Isman ovat Otavan Opiston monikulttuurisella peruskoululinjalla.